Follow by Email

Thursday, 26 June 2014

Was Frank Hall Dean Del Mastro’s patsy?

A pattern is emerging in the Dean Del Mastro trial.

According to evidence provided by Frank Hall, who ran the
now defunct Ottawa polling firm Holinshed, for almost a year he was strung along
by Dean Del Mastro, the Peterborough MP accused of overspending on his 2008 campaign, and then covering it up.

Frank Hall on the stand

Hall backdated numerous invoices in the hopes of getting additional business
from both Del Mastro’s Peterborough riding association and his parliamentary
office.

However, once Del Mastro was in possession of a timeline that put him
in the clear of any appearance of wrongdoing, and after Hall and his brother
Colin raised red flags on suspicious Election Canada reporting and unpaid
invoices, the relationship was abruptly terminated.

On August 28, 2008, Dean Del Mastro sent a scathing email to
Frank Hall. In it, he asserted that he “has a job to do,” and that Hall’s
invoices didn’t correspond to what had been agreed to in conversation. He further
asserted that he was “sick of this entire saga,” though he concluded that that
they could “discuss compensation for costs, and hopefully this can end
amicably.”

The court has no record of phone conversations, and the
defence has yet to cross-examine Mr. Hall, but, based on the four days of
evidence, Mr. Del Mastro’s termination of the relationship seems bizarre and
arbitrary given the extent and depth of his dealings with Holinshed.

Thursday’s testimony began with the crown continuing to lead
Mr. Hall through the paper trail. After the federal election on October 14, 2008,
Hall testified that Del Mastro led him to believe that Del Mastro’s riding
association and parliamentary office would be interested in purchasing
Holinshed’s GeoVote software.

According to Hall, the plan to purchase the software was
delayed to January 1st , 2009, and then again to April 1st,
2009. The evidence supplied by the crown indicated numerous emails with
invoices that were adjusted to address concerns expressed by Del Mastro.

Hall testified that from late 2008 and into 2009 he had
extensive contact with Dean Del Mastro by phone, email, and in person. In one
meeting in Del Mastro’s office on Parliament Hill Hall said that Del Mastro
informed him that he was having issues with his Peterborough riding association,
which Del Mastro claimed owed him money.

“I didn’t understand. What did this have to do with me?”
Hall testified. “It was a bit odd, but it wouldn’t be the first time I was in
an odd situation with a politician.”

It was around this time that another client of Hall’s informed
him and his brother Colin, who also worked at Holinshed, that they had found something
strange on Elections Canada’s website. The Elections Canada data showed the Holinshed
expense registered by the Del Mastro campaign for the 2008 election to be only
1,500, or $1,575 including GST.

This amount corresponded to a request for work made by Del
Mastro to Holinshed after the election, but was well below the $21,000 that
Hall said Del Mastro had already paid him from the MP’s personal account.

“I sent an email to the official agent, I believe it was Mr.
McCarthy,” said Hall, referring to Del Mastro’s co-accused, Richard McCarthy, who
was the MP’s agent during the 2008 federal election.

Hall’s email was sent on May 12, 2009, and McCarthy
responded on May 25, 2009, saying that he was no longer the official agent, and
did not have the records. Hall then pursued the matter further with the new
agent, who confirmed that the official declared amount was only $1,575.

“I discussed it at work
with [my brother] Colin in some detail,” said Hall. “I sat on it for a day or
so. It was a minor cause of worry. It was also none of my business.”

However, Hall also testified that he wanted to make sure
that there was no wrongdoing that he might have been implicated with. To try
and sort things out, he sent Del Mastro an email. In it he said that he was ok
altering dates on invoices – to a point.

“I cannot fulfil requests to alter invoicing if that means something
improper,” he wrote. “As of now, that is my concern.”

Del Mastro responded immediately with a one line email: “Where
is this coming from?”

They then followed up with a phone call.

“He asked me to delete the email,” Hall testified. “That was
the first thing he asked.”

Hall did not delete the email. However, the relationship
seemed to stay on reasonably good terms, with Hall still hoping for more
business from Del Mastro.

“He was really nice,” said Hall. “He said he was trying to
work out financial issues with his riding association. He assured me that nothing
was wrong. All was well. And I took him at his word. I had no reason not to –
he had paid us in full for the work we did for his election campaign.”

What followed was, according to Hall, more stringing along
by Del Mastro, with requests for additional quotes and invoices either related
to work with Holinshed’s custom software, GeoVote, or to address specific requests
by Del Mastro.

This included a request to generate an invoice in June 2009,
and to date it June 22, 2008. The invoice was broken down into: work data
collection; telephone data collection; voter ID; and get out the vote. It
included 700 hours of calling and totalled $19, 425.

Hall then testified that it was agreed the contract for
Holinshed’s GeoVote software would be split, with two invoices for $10, 804.50.
One invoice would be for work done in the Peterborough riding association,
which might be considered political, and the other would be for the
parliamentary office in Ottawa, which could be paid for out of the House of
Commons budget.

During this period Hall was repeatedly trying to nail down some
sort of functional contract for his GeoVote software. If his testimony and the paper
trail so far are to be believed, Del Mastro was constantly changing the rules.

Nonetheless, Hall appears to be doing whatever he can to please
his potential client, including generating another invoice for $19, 425, presumably
to replace the one dated for June 22, 2008, but this time to be dated December
10, 2008. It is now June, 2009, and the records would suggest that Hall was a man
desperate to lock in some business.

“Why are you sending these invoices in?” asked Lemon.

“Because he [Dean Del Mastro] asked me to,” said Hall. “I
hoped to finally set up the system that I had been chasing for a long time.”

Court documents show that a $10, 804.50 service agreement with
the House of Commons was signed by Hall and Del Mastro on June 9, 2009. This
was for one half of the GeoVote software. Hall was still trying to close on the
other half that was to be used by Del Mastro’s Peterborough riding association.

Further complications arose as the House of Commons rules changed
to stipulate that all invoices had to be dated within 30 days. Del Mastro then
got a new treasurer. His executive assistant, Karen Freeley, suggested
quarterly payments to cover GeoVote costs in the riding, and Del Mastro
suggested the work be invoiced as research. Always, Hall responded with speed
and courtesy.

Then on August 14, 2009, despite the fact that no money had
been paid for the GeoVote software, Del Mastro sends Hall an email:

“Then we’re square.”

“Yes, sir,” replies Hall. “And I will get your system up and
running as discussed.”

Two weeks later, Del Mastro rudely cuts the cord with Holinshed.
He says it is because Colin Hall, presumably frustrated by the lack of payment,
threatened legal action in an email.

After receiving Del Mastro’s email, Frank Hall responds with
a long, eloquent , and detailed outline of the strange journey Del Mastro has
taken him on – and his unsettling conclusion that he’s been played.

“In the last eight months, any reasonable person would conclude
you had no intention of upholding your contract,” he wrote. “I always complied without hesitation. I
granted requests to change invoices so that you could avoid officially breaking
your spending limits, as per the Elections Act.”

Del Mastro then responded on August 30, 2009, by saying that
Hall’s GeoVote system had no value to him, that Colin had threatened to take
him to court, and that “upon review I was always finding surprises and mistakes
in invoices”.

He ends by asking Hall to send him yet another invoice to
cover costs.

On August 31, 2009, Frank Hall emailed Dean Del Mastro –

“There are no mistakes in the invoices,” wrote Hall. “They result
from specific requests made by you. Until today you never mentioned any
mistakes. We have split invoices, dates, and amounts. Now you want to sever
ties with Holinshed and, once again, change our invoice.”

Search This Blog

Podcast: Notes From The Underground

In the podcast Notes From The Underground TE Wilson discusses historical and contemporary attitudes toward crime. Each episode features a one-on-one interview that explores a unique topic. Interviewees include authors, experts, and individuals with personal experiences of crime. These podcasts were originally broadcast through the facilities of Trent Radio in Peterborough, Canada.

Mezcalero, a Detective Sánchez novel

Bicultural and transgender, detective Ernesto Sánchez seeks a missing Canadian woman on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Moving uneasily in a world where benign tourism co-exists with extreme violence, he becomes a pawn in a shadowy power-play between corrupt police and drug cartels. Forced to make hard choices – desperate, wounded, and friendless – Sánchez takes refuge in the lawless mountains of Oaxaca. And discovers his fate.

“Wilson’s Mezcalero is a real-pager turner…While the milieu of Wilson’s novel is reminiscent of the hard-boiled tradition, his creation of P.I. Ernesto Sánchez is original, and helps Wilson push the boundaries with respect to genre. Sánchez is a hard-hitting private eye, but Wilson also depicts him as struggling with many of the issues that transgender individuals typically face; in this manner, Wilson creates both a riveting mystery and timely story about navigating life as a gender nonconforming individual.”

“Mezcalero is a remarkable read, with sustained suspense, surprise explosions of poetry and violence, and some new answers to old questions...Wilson understands something about violence and gender that I have never encountered before: that women’s violence is perhaps the most feared. Sanchez’s womanly violence in his manly body is a mystery revealed, a truth told that we suspected all along. This is a profoundly feminist book. The women in the book are the power brokers, the activators of action; even the most oppressed empleada is a container of her own complete power. Mezcalero is deftly plotted, and deploys an acrobatic narrative that is, frankly, exhilarating. Sanchez has a lot to teach us. Wilson, too.”

Janette Platana, author of A Token of My Affliction (2015 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize; 2016 English Language Trilium Book Award finalist).

“T.E. Wilson’s Mezcalerois, as a novel, a tacit consequence of the author’s real-world work as a reporter/journalist in Mexico. His work is rich in essence, and rich in detail, of how widespread organized crime and corruption permeate Mexican society. Highly recommended. This is great, well-grounded fiction.”

Dr. Edgardo Buscaglia, Senior Research Scholar in Law and Economics, Columbia University, and President of the Citizens’ Action Institute (Instituto de Acción Ciudadana).

“T.E. Wilson has crafted a terrific, terrifying and yet sensationally witty portrait of modern Mexico. Detective Sánchez is irresistible. You won’t soon forget his journey through that unpredictable jungle that is Mexico today.”